Former President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has challenged African governments to stop treating their growing youth population as a potential burden and instead invest in education, healthcare, skills, technology and entrepreneurship to drive economic transformation.
Adesina warned that Africa’s demographic advantage would remain unrealised unless governments deliberately equipped young people with the capabilities, resources and opportunities to create businesses, develop technologies and generate employment.
He made the call while delivering the keynote address, titled “Africa Next: Building the Demographic Asset Class,” at the inaugural Seyi Tinubu Colloquium in Lagos on Monday.
The colloquium, which brought together political leaders, business executives, policymakers and youth advocates, provided a platform for discussions on leadership, enterprise, innovation and the role of young people in shaping Nigeria’s future.
Adesina argued that population growth alone could not guarantee prosperity, insisting that the real value of a country’s human resources depended on how effectively its people were educated, skilled, kept healthy and connected to economic opportunities.
“People are not liabilities. Young people are not liabilities. A young growing population is not a liability,” he said, according to reports of his address.
He maintained that Africa’s challenge was not simply the size of its youthful population but the failure of economic and institutional systems to develop its potential.
The former AfDB chief said governments must move beyond measuring demographic growth and ask what young people would be able to create, the businesses they could establish and the technologies they could develop to solve the continent’s problems.
He identified quality education as a critical foundation for economic development, arguing that investment in human capability was as important as spending on roads, electricity, transport networks and other physical infrastructure.
Adesina described education and the development of intellectual capacity as essential to building societies capable of innovating, competing globally and generating sustainable prosperity.
He also urged African youths to embrace artificial intelligence and digital technologies, while developing solutions tailored to the continent’s needs rather than remaining consumers of innovations produced elsewhere.
He said a skilled young person with access to technology, capital and markets could progress from being a job seeker to a business owner and, ultimately, an employer.
Adesina warned that unemployment and limited opportunities should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of a lack of ambition or ability among young people.
Instead, he said, the problem often lay in inadequate education, limited access to finance, unreliable infrastructure and institutions that failed to connect talent with productive opportunities.
The development economist called for stronger support for entrepreneurship, particularly through financing systems capable of backing promising young business owners who might lack conventional collateral.
He argued that financial institutions and governments needed to look beyond the risks associated with young entrepreneurs and recognise their potential to create businesses, jobs and wealth.
Without such support, he warned, Africa risked wasting the productive capacity of a generation that could otherwise help accelerate economic growth and improve the continent’s competitiveness.
Adesina also emphasised the importance of reliable electricity, effective institutions and an enabling business environment in allowing young people to turn ideas into viable enterprises.
His position reflects a broader development challenge facing African economies: translating a rapidly growing working-age population into productive employment requires not only education and skills but also investment, functioning infrastructure and opportunities to use those capabilities.
Adesina urged African youths to position themselves at the forefront of emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, digital services and innovation-driven enterprise.
He argued that digital technology could allow African entrepreneurs to develop products and services for international markets, opening opportunities beyond their immediate geographical locations.
However, he stressed the need for Africa to develop and adapt technologies to address its own economic and social realities, including challenges in agriculture, healthcare and other essential sectors.
The former AfDB president said investment in technical education and practical skills should be accompanied by access to capital and markets, enabling young people to build sustainable businesses rather than remain dependent on limited employment opportunities.
He also called for deliberate investment in healthcare, noting that a productive population requires the health and wellbeing necessary to participate in economic activity.
Adesina highlighted youth-focused initiatives in Nigeria, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (i-DICE) programme.
The initiatives target different aspects of education, institutional capacity and enterprise development, but Adesina’s broader argument was that sustained investment must connect learning and skills to productive opportunities.
He said young Nigerians needed an environment in which they could acquire relevant knowledge, access affordable financing, develop innovative products and build enterprises capable of creating jobs.
For Africa’s demographic potential to translate into economic returns, he argued, governments must make human development a central component of their development strategies.
“The more important questions are: What will they be able to do? What will they create? What businesses will they build?” he asked.
He urged African leaders to make youth empowerment a core economic priority, warning that the continent’s future prosperity would depend less on the number of young people it had than on what they were enabled to accomplish.
The message adds to calls at the colloquium for greater youth participation in national development and stronger collaboration between established leaders and younger generations.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu also called for greater investment in youth leadership, mentorship, education and innovation, urging established leaders to create opportunities for younger people to gain experience and contribute to nation-building.
The colloquium’s discussions underscored the importance of giving young Nigerians opportunities to participate in decision-making and develop the skills needed to assume greater responsibilities.
For Adesina, however, the central issue remains whether governments and institutions can create the conditions for young people to convert their abilities into economic value.
He maintained that Africa’s demographic advantage would only become a source of prosperity when investment in education, health, technology and skills was matched by access to finance, reliable infrastructure and opportunities to establish businesses.
The former AfDB president urged African governments to place young people at the centre of economic planning, arguing that developing their capabilities was essential to building competitive economies, generating employment and securing the continent’s long-term future.
Michael Olugbode
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